D.P. – Season 2 Episode 3 “Curtain Call” Recap & Review

Curtain Call

Episode 3 of D.P. Season 2 starts with a flashback of Corporal Jang Su-min while he was a student of performing arts. Su-min was being beaten up by his senior because he wanted to play a female character in one of the plays. The senior claims that Su-min will learn a lesson once he goes into the military as his enlistment letter arrives.

Present-day, Jun-ho and Ho-yeol are awarded for helping Ru-ri come out of the incident unharmed. Beom-ju believes that the merit award is not all that merit because their actions caused the evil bullying practices of the military to be exposed to the public.

Ho-yeol wonders if they’ll be allowed to go on a break thanks to the award but Beom-ju puts them on the job to look for one of the three most notorious deserters – Jang Su-min. Ho-yeol is shocked upon mention of Su-min’s name and a flashback shows Ho-yeol on a mission with Sung-woo where he had first interacted with Su-min.

Su-min performed as a drag queen at a club where the two D.P. Soldiers had first tried to catch him. Su-min was having a very hard time in the military, especially due to his sexuality where the other soldiers called him all sorts of names alongside bullying and hazing him.

Ho-yeol asks Su-min to go back to the military but the latter is extremely petrified. In turn, he attacks Ho-yeol, stabbing him with a knife as he flees away.

Present-day Ho-yeol and Jun-ho go back to the same club looking for Su-min and learn that he has fled since the stabbing incident. The duo go to the cops for help on the matter and are directed to a private detective. Meanwhile, Jin-seop, Beom-gu and Gi-yeong discuss the three most notorious deserters who haven’t been caught yet.

Aside from Su-min, a man was on the loose for the last eight years while another has been missing since the Korean War. Jun-ho and Ho-yeol meet the alleged private detective who has some information on Su-min’s whereabouts but learn that he was part of a group of gangsters.

The mob of cross-dressing gangsters try attacking the two soldiers but the cops arrive at their defence just in time. The detective flees away on a bicycle while Jun-ho chases after him in a cycle of his own. The comedic chase supposedly ends when the detective manages to outrun Jun-ho but Ho-yeol chases after him in an electric ice cream truck.

The man ends up going inside a restaurant to grab some water from being exhausted but the two soldiers catch onto him. The man is taken to the cops and eventually gives up information about Su-min. He claims that Su-min called himself Nina and wanted to live in anonymity after stabbing a soldier.

Jun-ho and Ho-yeol follow Su-min’s trial and discover that he’s having a hard time making ends meet while working two jobs. Su-min works at a factory by day and is a performer at a bar by night, where he sings as ‘Nina’, his female sexual identity.

Su-min struggles to live a double life until he is discovered by a famous director who asks him to join her in London as an actress playing the role of Nina in her remake of the classic play The Seagull by Russian dramatist – Anton Chekhov. Jun-ho and Ho-yeol learn that Su-min had sought the help of the infamous deserter who fled the military 8 years ago.

The two soldiers show up at the deserter’s hideout pretending to be deserters themselves. The man is now old and empathizes with Jun-ho and Ho-yeol after experiencing something so harsh in the military himself. However, chaos breaks out when someone leaks that Jun-ho and Ho-yeol are both undercover soldiers.

The two soldiers run away and Jun-ho accidentally goes inside the club where Su-min performed only to be shocked that Yeong-ok works there as well. Jun-ho catches up with Yeong-ok and learns that Su-min was on his way to London. Yeong-ok wishes that Nina (Su-min) is able to escape after what he has been through.

Yeong-ok offers to have one meal with Jun-ho for old times sake but Jun-ho bids her farewell. He finds Ho-yeol and the two arrive at the international airport looking for Su-min. From the airport staff, the two soldiers learn that Su-min/Nina’s fake passport was detected by the server and was asked to step aside for interrogation.

Su-min/Nina panics and starts fleeing from the airport but ends up tripping and hurting themselves. With a bleeding head, Nina runs out of the Airport. Ho-yeol decides to follow the trail that Su-min/Nina may have taken. The two soldiers arrive on a highway where they find Su-min/Nina’s dead body.

It is revealed that Su-min passed away on the side of the abandoned highway from his injury due to excessive bleeding. The episode ends with the two soldiers thinking about their purpose in life, wondering if they will ever go to the extent of chasing their passions like Su-min did. 

The Episode Review

This episode will have you in tears and I am happy to see the D.P. magic is back as this episode comes out as one of the best-exposed chapters on the show over its two seasons. As hilarious as this drama was, the end was so emotional and introspective as you are left rethinking your own life choices and passions. 

This certainly had a lot less to do with the bigger scheme of events in the military base camp, and more like a stop-gap before the next episodes dive back into that. This episode is much more of a bottle chapter; two soldiers trying to bring a deserter back to the military as per their duty.  

All of this is tinged with a feel of nostalgia, with Sung-woo played by Go Kyung-pyo and Yeong-ok played by Won Ji-an making a comeback. I really wish Jun-ho would have taken Yeong-ok on her offer and joined her for a meal because the two could make a very good couple!